Travel | High flyers

As a backpacker visiting Bagan, the ancient capital of Burma, in 1995, Brett Melzer wished he could take to the air by hot-air balloon to view the thousands of temples scattered around the site.

Pro-democracy advocacy groups discouraged tourism at the time. The country was ruled by a military dictatorship and isolated from much of the Western world.

But Melzer, an Australian with a thirst for adventure, wasn’t deterred. He quit his job trading interest rate futures in Kuala Lumpur and returned to Burma to establish a tourism venture.

Within a week he’d met his Burmese wife-to-be, Khin Omar Win (Omar). They married and Balloons Over Bagan was born. “We were in our 20s,” Melzer says. “It seemed like a good idea.”

It began as a one-balloon venture in 1999 with eight staff and a $US100,000 loan from his parents. Omar is the legal owner of the company.

Today they have seven balloons and another on the way. About 8000 people take to the skies annually on sunrise and sunset flights that start at $US300 per person. The company now employs 90 locals and nine pilots.

The growth of the business has happened mainly over the past few years as the country advanced towards democratisation. A civilian government was appointed in 2011, hundreds of political prisoners have been released, and new laws provide for greater freedom of expression and political participation. “Suddenly, instead of flying eight or 12 people in a morning we were flying 70,” Melzer says.

“Next year it will be more than 80 people in high season.”

But it hasn’t been easy. As well as being rent by political tension, Burma was battered by cyclone Nargis, the nation’s worst natural disaster, in 2008. Growing difficulties with travel permits and the abrupt cancellation of the only air service to Putao in 2008 forced the couple to sell out of a boutique resort on the border with Tibet and northern India.

Expanding the business to include four- and six-day ballooning safaris ($4000 to $6000 a person) was another uphill struggle. Government permission was needed each time they wanted to fly balloons elsewhere in Burma. Once they had permission, the dates were set in stone.

“Now with the new government we think we’re going to be able to offer safaris in a more condensed and far more flexible manner,” Melzer says.

Despite the stresses of operating a business in Burma, he says it has been “very rewarding on many, many levels”. A financial contribution is made to the local community for every flight taken. Last year the company distributed $US20,000 to education, health and aged care groups.

The couple also raised $US60,000 in aid after Nargis, and they sponsor 15 orphans in the delta region where the cyclone hit. They have also established a staff fund so employees can borrow money at a nominal rate of interest. All interest is reinvested in the staff fund.

For Omar, starting a tourism business in her homeland has been an emotional process. “Being in tourism has enabled us to be in an industry that has given hope at times when it seemed there was none,” she says.

“There were tough times when we thought it would not get better but there is finally light at the end of the tunnel.”

After 14 years living in Burma, the couple recently moved to Melbourne with their three children. They plan to open a boutique tourist property in Bagan and a luxury resort in Bhutan.